Ok, being her husband I'm slightly biased. On the other hand, there are a lot of facts that you are unaware of if you just read ""namantra"" 's review of 2/9/2007. What many people are unaware of is that for each accompaniment that she takes on, she also spends many hours practicing that accompaniment on her own in order to ensure as nearly flawless performance as possible. Couple this along with travel to a remote contest location and her rate is less than $10/hour for all of the time that she devotes to each student. In ""namantra"" ' s case, he was playing a solo by Hindemith ... a very difficult accompaniment that required extra effort on her part!
A rehearsal is NOT the time for the soloist to practice and learn their part. When a soloist gets together with their accompanist it should be to work out ensemble problems only. There is NO WAY that a failure to memorize a piece can be blamed on the accompanist! Memorization should be mature BEFORE the accompanist enters the picture.
Here's some facts about my wife's studio:
A) She has roughly 100 students
B) She is a certified teacher by the American College of Musicians
C) In 2002 she received the Piano Guild Hall of Fame award
D) She is the accompanist that many of the area band directors call on when the music is so hard that no one else can do it.
E) She helped to inspire 2 of our own children to pursue careers in music ... 1 of which will be getting his doctorate from Texas Tech and the other her masters from Juilliard in the near future.
F) She also plays regularly at her church.
I get to observe the results of her teaching efforts on a regular basis. It is a common occurrence to see a student of hers running excitedly from our house back to their parent's car filled with joy over something that they achieved and learned at their lesson. This is what she strives for and this is what she achieves over and over and over again.
Oh, and by the way ... ""namantra"" had her accompany him again the year after he wrote the 2/9/07 review.
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